Chris_R

That. Especially the first bit.

something wrong mate? I think it's Kinnear's half-time team talk.

People keep going on about wanting Bruce here, well not if that's how he'd have us playing. I'm all for a bit of passion but that's just being a bunch of dirty cunts. Butt's been anonymous, although Duff and Guthrie have been little better. Whilst there's been nothing of note from Owen or Viduka I find it hard to blame them when they've been starved of posession. Still, see if we can sort it out at half time. Hope Beye's not too bad.

Is Enrique definitely injured as opposed to dropped?

That's pure comedy gold is that.

Haven't read the other 28 pages so doubtless my point will already have been made but if he's delaying until the summer it'll be so he can talk to English clubs. Right now he can only sign with Newcastle or with overseas clubs and it stays that way until the last month of his contract iirc. He's probably already been tapped up by another club though and doubtless already knows where he's going. And despite the "Money's not important" quote, I'd not be surprised to see him at Man City. Not blaming the lad for that mind, given the current off-field shambles of our lot I think any player with half a brain would look to get out if they could. Still disappointed though.

Fucking get in! That is all.

Should never have been sacked. Said it at the time, and I'll say it again now. Hope he's well enough to enjoy Christmas with his family and all the best to him for whatever time he's got left, hopefully a long time. Utter legend as a manager, and pure class as a man.

It's the rules that are the problem, not the people being paid to implement them. It's utterly ridiculous that standing up is deemed dangerous. I stand all the time at home, I stand often at work and I've never once come to any harm. People stand to sing in churches but you don't get stewards there telling the congregation to sit down or be ejected. That said, I stand at football matches and will continue to do so in direct opposition to the above ridiculous rules. But if asked to sit down by a steward, I will do so as the alternative is to potentially be ejected from the stadium. But I will stand up again the very moment he walks away, which he inevitably must.

I'm sick of this obsession with getting left backs in when what we desperately need is 2 quality central midfielders. Anyone with even one milky cataract eye can see this. Why can Kinnear not?

I doubt I'll say anything not already said 100 times in the previous 27 pages but here goes: Playing 6 defenders was a recipe for disaster. Jonas was utterly ineffective in the middle. When Guthrie went off at half-time with no midfield cover, why not bring a striker on and switch to 4-3-3? We were 2-0 up, at home, against Stoke City FFS. We got what we deserved today. I would like to think Kinnear will learn from this but he's 61 years old and has been managing for over 20 years and if he couldn't see that what he did today wasn't going to work then he never will. Shown up today as the second-rate manager we all know him to be.

Yeah, there was about 15 stewards trying to get 5000 people to sit down. I think they managed to seat about 10, but another thousand stood up in protest. Utterly pointless.

Brain the size of a pea. Good luck to the lad, met him once and seemed really canny but I would be seriously worried if he got anywhere near our first team squad.

Fucking hell, a midfield of Butt, Geremi, Smith and Duff just fills me with dread. Not one of them should be anywhere near our club. They may be great people or nice blokes or be good in the dressing room, but as midfielders they offer little (Geremi) or nothing (Butt, Smith and Duff) going forward.

No chance of getting that job after spending £80m with the mackems and achieving precisely fuck all other than to build another relegation-threatened side.

Nail. Head. If he said he DID have an 80% chance of keeping Owen, I might listen. I'd say the chance of him staying is as close to 0 as to be not worth talking about. Perhaps he's saying he wants Butt and Owen to stay, then Butt will stay and Owen will go and we'll claim it as a triumph that we've kept 1 of them.

Tragic quoting skills there, but you get the point.

i'd have took enrique off and went to 3 at the back. we were a goal down against 10 men. saying that i'd have strated owen instead of shola. Shola's always going to start though. After all, who else in the team is going to play the "John Fashanu" role for us so we can hump high balls up to them from the back?

4.45 miles PR Sunderland AFC SR5 1SU 0845 671 1973 7.21 miles PR Newcastle United Football Club NE1 4ST 0191 261 1571 I feel dirty.

I was shocked to say the least when he took Jonas off. Switching to 3 up front is a good idea when behind but not when you take off the only midfielder who scares defenders. Butt offers nothing going forward (And little enough going back) so he should have been the one to make way IMO. And there was a very strong argument for N'Zogbia on for Duff as well. Martins Ameobi Owen N'Zogbia Barton Jonas That would have been a lot more frightening to Fulham than what we ended up watching.

I don't finish work until 8pm on a weekday, so I can't get to any midweek ones without wasting holiday allocation. It sucks balls, frankly.

I always approach the corner of the Gallowgate and Milburn stands, irrespective of where I'm sitting, then proceed to go round the ground clockwise until I get to my seat. If I'm in the middle of the Gallowgate, this can be quite a walk! Also, once in I always go up the outside of the stairs, so I'm walking the longest distance up the stairs as well. Absolutley no idea what started either of these, been doing them for 15 years now. If I can't do them (ie because I'm going in to the ground with some mates and would feel like a bit of a freak explaining that I need to do the above.) then I feel all wrong and we invariably get beat.

No matter what happens to Famagusta, Ketsbaia has done wonders there and deserves massive congratulations. He's been there 4 years now and has consistently overachieved. Not sure he's ready for a job like ours yet, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him on a bigger stage sometime soon.

I'd back Ashley if he put his hand in his pocket to strengthen the playing staff and appointed a top-class manager.

Yeah, we've had half our best players out for ages. Beye, Jonas, Owen, Martins & Barton. If all of them had been fully fit for the last 7 games, we'd be a damned sight higher up the table than we are. Or, you know, we're not very good. ?...The point is we've been missing a hell of alot of important players at the same. Even last year we were good when we had our best players available. It's just a shame that we can never seem to put the best team out. I think though that goes back to our woeful lack of strength in depth. We've got a decent enough first team, but as soon as we get any injuries we're screwed.